Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana, in this interview with LEKE BAIYEWU, says the office of the First Lady is illegal and the roles of president/governors’ wives should be limited
What does the Nigerian constitution say about the office of the First Lady and what are the roles assigned to the occupant?
The post of the First Lady is not a
creation of the constitution. In other words, there is no mention or
reference to the post in the constitution or any other statute in the
land. So, the question of assigning responsibilities to the office does
not arise. In the first and second republics, there was no office of the
First Lady. Even under successive military regimes up to the Muhammadu
Buhari/Tunde Idiagbon era, the post was unknown. It was under the Gen.
Ibrahim Babangida junta that the wife of the military president created
the post, albeit illegally. There was no decree to back it up. When the
late Mrs. Maryam Babangida (known as Maryam the First) started diverting
public funds to run her Better Life project, the late Chief Gani
Fawehinmi, SAN, challenged the aberration in court. Although the action
was struck out for want of locus standi, Nigerians kicked against the
illegality. Under the maximum dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha, we had the
reign of ‘Maryam the second.’
The post of the First Lady was one of
the oddities bequeathed to the civilian regime by a corrupt and wasteful
military dictatorship. From 1999 till now, no president has had the
courage to check the excesses of his wife. These days, roads are blocked
in our cities for hours because the wife of the president is retouching
her hair in a salon. Very recently, Lagos was completely grounded for
eight hours because the wife of the president (Patience Jonathan) was in
town to attend a naming ceremony. Governor Raji Fashola, SAN, was
compelled to condemn the illegal disruption of activities in the state.
Last month, the Government Reserved Area
in Port-Harcourt was closed down for 11 days because the wife of the
president was around to kick-start the 2015 electioneering in total
violation of the Electoral Act. It was reported that there were some
official functions the elected governor could not attend because his
official residence was blocked by armed gendarmes, who were detailed to
protect and secure an unelected person. It is high time such reckless
impunity associated with the wife of the president was stopped. The
other time, all the wives of senators were summoned to Abuja where the
president’s wife asked them to warn their husbands to behave themselves.
Why should senators allow such humiliation with all the risks involved
in travelling to Abuja for frivolities?
Many have argued that the wives of
governors and the President should carry out some governmental
responsibilities to complement the efforts of their spouses. Is this
logical?
Nigerians are totally opposed to the
idea of conferring any power or responsibilities on the spouses of
presidents and governors. The Justice Alfa Belgore Constitutional Review
Panel, set up by President Goodluck Jonathan, rejected the inclusion of
the office of the First Lady in the constitution. The National Assembly
constitutional review committees have also kicked against it. Recently,
the proposed allocation of N4bn in the Federal Capital Territory budget
to build an office for the First Lady was expunged by the Senate. If
the allocation had been passed, I would have challenged it in court.
But, the Senate rightly rejected it. Let the spouses and family members
of elected officials give a helping hand to them by ensuring their
success and not by blocking roads to disrupt the free movement of goods
and services and in the process, violate the freedom of movement of
citizens.
As a permanent secretary in
Bayelsa State, does the rule guiding civil service allow the wife of
President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, to remain out of duty for long?
I am not familiar with the civil service
rules of Bayelsa State. But, the post of permanent secretary has become
political, hence the wife of the president was considered for the
appointment. We were told that she has been on leave of absence since
1999 and that may have been extended to 2015. Unfortunately, we are not
learning from the past. In the Second Republic, the wives of the
President and governors treated themselves with dignity. The late Mrs.
Atinuke Ige was a High Court judge in Oyo State, while her husband was
the governor. She never adjourned her cases to attend state functions.
Even under the current democratic dispensation, many wives of governors
are complementing the duties of their husbands without subjecting
citizens to harassment.
Where her roles cannot be governmental, what kind of public duties can she carry out?
I cannot dictate for spouses of elected
officials what roles they should play. But, let them learn from the
professionals among them like Justice Mary Peter-Odili, who has reached
the apogee of her career. If she had been on sabbatical leave for eight
years when her husband was the governor of Rivers State, she could not
have made it to the apex court by now. Let those who decide to run
non-governmental organisations run them for the benefit of our people.
There is so much to do. Let them join the campaign to remove 10.5
million children from the streets and register them in schools. Let them
join the battle to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, cholera and other
preventable diseases that are ravaging our people. Let them influence
their spouses to address these problems and the crisis of poverty in the
midst of plenty.
Pet projects of first ladies have
come under heavy criticism, particularly when public funds are diverted
to them indirectly through donations. Are these projects justifiable?
Like other citizens, spouses of elected
officials are entitled to establish NGOs but the sources of funding them
should be known by the public. Like I said, there is so much to do.
Cases of rape are on the increase all over the country. We have the
highest number of illiterate children in the world. We have the highest
number of children afflicted with HIV/AIDS. In some parts of the
country, education for girls remains a taboo. Women and children are the
greatest victims of our poverty-induced economy. These issues should
occupy the attention of governors’ wives setting up NGOs. Happily, some
are doing well in these areas.
What about the paraphernalia
attached to the office of the First Lady, should the
President/governor’s wife enjoy the benefits accruable to elected public
office holders?
You cannot talk of the paraphernalia of
an office that has not been established by law. However, the spouses of
an elected President and governors are entitled to attend programmes and
travel with their partners. They are entitled to adequate security,
particularly in this age of kidnapping. There are some other benefits
conferred on them by law.
Would criticism of first ladies not be described as limiting women participation in politics?
The criticisms are justified, as they
are borne out of experience. Nigerians are perfectly in order in
reviewing what happened in the past and what now obtains here and in
other civilised countries. The last time (wife of the United States
President) Mrs. Barrack Obama travelled to Spain for a holiday, the
American press probed how she funded her trip. In our country, the
president’s wife was flown abroad for medical treatment last year but we
were told she was on leave and that she was in perfect state of
health. As a religious people, Nigerians were not given any prayer
point and could not pray for her and wish her a speedy recovery. On her
return, she abused and cursed those who had wished her dead. A month
later, she held a thanksgiving service in the Presidential Villa where
she asked Nigerians to thank God for her, as she had just risen from the
dead like Lazarus. Don’t you think the Presidency should have
apologised to Nigerians for the unwarranted embarrassment?
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You on point Dear Falana, this 'first lady' harassment of the public needs to be checked. I am a victim of this woman's (Patience Jonathan's) last 11-day sojourn in Port Harcourt. People suffered moving around or through the Old GRA because of this madness. Interesting enough, the husband hardly makes any move towards people complaints over his wife's menace, he thinks ASO rock is a permanent abode for his family.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct Sir. Can you imagine the so called first Lady asking residents around her house in PHC to obtain residential permits ? By the way where did she get money to build that kind of house ? Other looters would have even waited till out of office. Now she is sleeping in the same bed with confirmed criminals like Odilli and Wike. Please tell her to make the only road to her home town Okrika passable before anything. The woman is just a complete disappointment.
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